The present invention relates to a blower provided, for example, in an air conditioner.
A blower generally has a fan case, a sirocco fan of substantially cylindrical shape arranged in the case, and a motor for rotatably driving the fan. The case has a pair of inlets respectively opposed to the end openings of the fan, and an outlet disposed radially and outwardly from the fan. When the fan is rotated, the air outside of the case is sucked through the inlets into the case and is then blown out through the outlet.
This blower, however, has a problem in that, when the fan is rotating, a vortex flow may occur in the vicinity of the inlets due to the pressure difference in the case, with the result that the flow of the air sucked from the inlets into the case is disrupted. Thus, the blower has disadvantages in that it is noisy during the blowing operation and the air flow rate may decrease.
In Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Application No. 71,208/1979, a blower is disclosed in which a wind direction plate is mounted on the outer surface of a fan case, thereby preventing the interference of the air flow at the outside edge of the inlets. According to this blower, air can smoothly flow from the inlets into the case. Since a vortex flow is, however, produced in the case of this blower, the blower also cannot effectively reduce the noise nor increase the air flow rate.